


Le Chat, Le Chat!

by Merfilly



Category: The Matrix (1999 2003 2003)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Dark Agenda, Gen, Pre-Canon, Yuletide, Yuletide 2010
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-21
Updated: 2010-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 22:46:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mouse was a rescue from the Matrix; what was his story there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Le Chat, Le Chat!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [musicforwolves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicforwolves/gifts).



_The cat is coming, little mouse. Think you can outsmart him?_

The hacker stared at the enigmatic message a long moment, before carefully deleting it and removing what parts of its data trail he could find. It was a warning, obviously, but who from? Or was it possibly bait in a trap to draw him out to be pounced upon?

"Dad, going to the library!" Will called, not that it mattered. His dad was barely more than a vegetable, existing between work shifts, sleeps, and beers. The teen, close to finishing school and facing the drudgery of a life like his father's, raced out the door with his skateboard and backpack. Much better to hack the public access systems in the middle of a supposedly secure public point, for what Will wanted to do. He'd been nibbling at the cookie crumbs for weeks, convinced he was on the verge of exposing some great conspiracy to the whole word.

All he had to do was keep at it, be wary, and it would open up to his careful tweaking.

`~`~`~`~`

"Mister Lewis, will you come with me?" the dour principal asked, before the boy had even got inside. Will wasn't sure what he had done that could have gotten him in trouble here; he preferred to stay as quiet as possible in most of his real-world life, to better cover his tracks in the virtual world of hacking. He looked at the principal, and felt an edge of unease. For some reason, he didn't remember the man really being that cold, or him using such dark sunglasses.

"Yeah, Mister Jones. Can I just use the restroom first? I was racing to get here before my stomach gave out," Will answered without missing a beat, skateboard in one hand, and the other coming to lay flat on his stomach. He watched the dour man in the black suit, more a funeral director than a principal in the way he looked, fight to keep a sneer of disdain or disgust off his features, then nod.

"Of course. I will walk you there." The flat-featured man was true to his word, walking the boy to the restroom entrance, and pausing to wait outside it.

Will's mind raced; what had he done that required such vigilance on part of the principal? His mind flicked to the message he had received, and he felt a cold sweat coming over him. Maybe he was busted. Maye his big secret he was digging for was more dangerous than he knew. Maybe they were going to lock him away. While he didn't mind the idea of not following in his dad's footsteps, that wasn't quite the way he had intended to do it.

His eyes flicked to the windows, set above the stalls and the sinks. Maybe he was being paranoid, but maybe he was really in danger. Either way, those windows, his skateboard, and all his wits were the only thing he trusted to keep his skin safe right this moment. With that in mind, Will opened his backpack, dumped out the heavy books, keeping his water bottle and chewy granola bars plus a few useful things, and climbed up on the sink precariously.

`~`~`~`~`

Mister Jones tired of waiting, and stepped inside the restroom. His eyes took in the books spilled out on the floor, and then the open window. His finger came up to touch the button on the side of his radio piece, slowly. "We have a runner."

The orders came on the other end of the communication device quickly.

Remove the threat, at any cost.

`~`~`~`~`

There was a coffee shop that had beat-up old laptops for rent, and that was the best place Will thought he could go. It wasn't one of his typical hangouts, almost on purpose he realized now. Maybe he'd been wary of his online life longer than he had thought, and consciously avoided this place so it would be a last resort place to to run. Will slipped in, hunching a little in defensive worry that the shop worker would rat him out as a minor during the school day, but typical of a lot of baristas, the guy at the bar just kept doing his work, instead of paying attention.

There was one other guy in there, a big man wearing a long trench coat, tapping at the keys of a rented laptop with single-minded intensity. Will slipped into a booth that let him see the door, and quickly got the laptop at the booth up and running. He didn't see how these internet bars were going to last as prices on laptops kept falling, but he was thankful for them now. The first thing he did was start spinning up code to go back and eat all his own data dumps, moving their content to new, scattered points on the Internet. He focused in on the problem, thinking he was keeping his awareness of the door full in the front of his mind.

And then the other man spoke to him from the side of his table, completely unobserved in his approach. "Hello, Mouse," he said in a low, peaceful rumble.

"Umm..."

"No, I'm not here to hurt you. I merely want to help." The large, well-dressed man in the long coat sat down and gave Will a reassuring smile.

"Look, Mister. I'm not looking for real world trouble."

"No?" The man gave him an enigmatic look. "Not even if I tell you all this..." and he waved a hand around, "isn't even the real world?"

"Not..." Will's eyes went wide, because this guy was pulling at the edges of what Will had found. The world he lived in had to be manufactured; there was a lack of depth, too many details didn't match. He had come across one reference to the Potemkin Village syndrome once, before losing the site to a DDOS attack. "Okay, so who are you, and are you the one who sent the message?"

The man leaned forward, making eye contact that was...magnetic. "Morpheus. Except, I've come to wake you up, Mouse."

 _Morpheus._ At that Will's eyes went huge in recognition. A legend among hackers, and Will had always been one to believe in it, yet right now, the boy was sure he just had forgotten to wake up that morning for school.

"Are you willing to take the crumbs forever, dodging the Cat, or will you come get the full cake in the form of the truth?"

"How?" Will asked, leading to Morpheus putting his hand above the table, with a red pill and a blue pill.

"You choose. Red is danger, because truth is never safe. Blue makes it all go away, even the cat, because the Mouse will no longer want to chase the crumbs, and will forget the edges of reality are torn."

Will rejected that second option so violently in his soul that he reached immediately for the red one.

The door opened, and there was a brief moment when time seemed to freeze, before Will shoved the pill into his mouth, swallowing it, in the instant it took for Morpheus to see and recognize the threat.

Will's world spun wildly, and consciousness...changed.

`~`~`~`~`

"Hello, my brave Mouse," Morpheus said, voice soft in the cold of a place that was not the Internet Cafe...or like anything Will had ever seen before. The boy looked up at his guide into a whole new world, and decided that Will was the shell. He truly was Mouse now, ready to face the truth.


End file.
